Two hours later, the Gabrinis, along with Marcel Renardo, Sal’s security chief in Rome, stood outside of the luxurious cabin as the car bringing Cassius Gabrini arrived.  He had been transported all night, moving from one vehicle to another vehicle, from one location to another location, until they finally drove him up the mountain to Mick Sinatra’s resort.

Grace and Gemma, standing beside their men, waited with bated breath to see this grandfather, and to take his measure long before he ever had any contact with any of their children.  Tommy and Sal just waited.  Both of them were torn.  Both of them wanted to know more about the truth, while, at the same time, both of them wanted no parts of the truth!  It was as if two usually very precise men, were stuck in neutral.

“Just one car?” Gemma asked.  “I would have thought he’d have more security.”

“He’s not the one that needs the security,” Sal said.  “We are.  Right now, we’re working on the proposition that he’s the motherfucker that came after us yesterday.  That’s the proposition you and Grace work from too.”

Gemma nodded.  “Got cha,” she said.

“He’s been traveling all night,” Grace said.  “He may be quite upset.”

“I hope so,” said Sal.  “I hope that motherfucker is angry as hell.”

Grace looked at Tommy.  “Are you as certain as Sal that this man was involved in what happened yesterday?”

Tommy placed his hand around Grace’s waist.  “As certain as Sal?  No.  Concerned that Sal might be right?  Yes.”  He pulled Grace closer against him.  “Be on the lookout,” he said.

And it was Grace’s time to nod.  “I will,” she said.

The driver got out of the car, along with the bodyguard that rode shotgun on the front passenger seat, and both men walked around to the back-passenger door.  The driver opened the door and Cassius Gabrini, a man both Grace and Gemma could only describe as tall and thin, stepped out.  But like Tommy and Sal before them, they didn’t immediately see the Gabrini resemblance.

Cassius smiled as he walked up to the foursome.  “Well hello everybody,” he said cheerfully grinning from ear to ear.  “These must be the special ladies!”

Just as Tommy seemed to be safeguarding Grace with his arm around her, Sal reverted to protective mode, too, and placed his arm around Gemma.  As far as he was concerned, this very charming man before them ordered their deaths yesterday in two very orchestrated attacks.  He wasn’t about to smile and play nice.

“I am Cassius,” the grandfather announced with extended hand.  He first arrived in front of Grace.  “And you are?”

“This is my wife,” Tommy said.  “Grace Gabrini.”

“Nice to meet you, Grace Gabrini,” Cassius said, as they shook hands.

“Hello,” Grace responded.

Then Cassius turned to Gemma.  “And you are?”

Gemma shook his hand.  “Gemma Gabrini,” she said.  “I’m Sal’s wife.”

Cassius smiled and nodded his approval.  “You are quite beautiful,” he said to Gemma.  “Here in Rome, you will have no trouble finding men to fawn all over you.  We like the dark skin.  I see my grandsons do as well.”  He looked at Grace.  “And I meant no slight to you, Grace,” he added.  “You are beautiful also, in your own way.”

Gemma was about to set the old man straight, and so was Sal.  But Tommy beat them to it.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Tommy said pointblank.  “She’s not beautiful in her own way.  She’s beautiful in every way.”

“Yes, of course!” Cassius said.

“And she doesn’t need you or any other man to tell her so.”  Tommy’s look turned hard.  He was tired of these motherfuckers dissing Grace.  “Don’t patronize my wife,” he made clear.  “Ignore her, or say nothing to her, before you pull that you’re beautiful in your own way bullshit.”

“Damn right,” Sal said, nodding his agreement.

“I could not have said it any better myself,” agreed Gemma.

Grace felt warm inside.  Tommy was thought the world over as one of the most gorgeous men on the planet.  Yet, for some wonderful reason, no other woman was able to catch his eye, or his imagination, the way Grace had.  And Grace was eternally grateful.

“Let’s cut the small talk and get inside,” said Sal.  “We’ve got business.”

Tommy, however, stepped in front of Cassius and began giving him a full body pat down.

Cassius smiled.  “Is this really necessary?” he asked.

“We’ve taken care of that already, sir,” said the bodyguard.

But Tommy ignored them both.  Tommy was a security expert.  He knew more tricks of the trade than Marcel or most any other security chief would ever know.  He continued to pat him down.  And soon, he found what he was looking for.  A small knife.  Carefully tucked away inside of lining of Cassius’s suit coat pocket.  The driver and the bodyguard were shocked.

Sal grabbed it and showed it to Cassius as Tommy continued to pat him down for what seemed like an inordinately long time.  But Sal was livid.  “What the fuck?” he asked angrily, as he showed that knife to his two men.

“They were supposed to check everything,” Marcel said, embarrassed by this significant oversight.

“We did check everything,” said the driver.  “We are so sorry!”

“Your asses are sorry,” Sal said, and then looked at Marcel.  “Get rid of them,” he added.

Then he looked at Cassius.  “Slick motherfucker,” he said.

Cassius smiled.  “I didn’t realize I still had it on my person,” he said.  “How do you say in America?  My bad?”

Sal gave him a hard, chilling look, and then took Gemma’s hand and headed inside.

Cassius smiled as Tommy finally stopped frisking him.  “Just a little something for my own protection, you understand,” he said.

Tommy ignored him, too.  Nothing spoke louder to Tommy than hard, cold evidence.  That knife said it all.

He motioned for Cassius to go in front of he and Grace in a way of making it clear they were watching their backs.  Cassius, still shocked that his little protection move was discovered, headed on inside.  And with Marcel hurrying over to his men to relieve them of their duties, Tommy and Grace purposely entered the cabin last.

Once inside, Cassius took a seat in the big open space, while Sal and Gemma, and Tommy and Grace, sat in front of him.  They knew it looked like an interrogation.  They also knew that it was.

Even Cassius acknowledged his understanding.  “I could complain about the all-night loop driving that I had to endure,” he said.  “But I will not.  Security should be tight after the ambush you wonderful people endured.”

“Yeah, how did you find out about it?” Sal asked suspiciously.

“It made the news, no?” Cassius asked.  “We have our share of violence, as every city does, but even we are not so jaded as to view the kind of violence that occurred on yesterday as ordinary.”

Then he leaned forward.  “Listen,” he said, speaking mainly to Sal and Tommy, “I know you are not yet ready to accept me as your grandfather.  That is your right, and I agree with that right.  You don’t know me yet.  You have grave concerns about me.  I understand all of that.  But I am here, and I endured the disrespect I had to endure all night, for one reason and one reason only.  My only surviving son, Neeco, your father, Sal, needs your help.  Only you can help him.”

“Why only me?” Sal asked.  “What the fuck is wrong with this town if not one man in it can help another man?”

“It is not that simple. You must understand that.”

“I don’t understand shit!” Sal shot back.  “Tell me why he needs my help.  Tell me that much. Then maybe, just maybe, it’ll make some sense to me.”

Cassius leaned back.  “That is for him to tell you,” he said.

“Fuck it then!” said Sal

“Who’s Venetti?” asked Tommy.

Cassius looked at Tommy.  He was Mister Cool sitting up there, Cassius thought, with his legs crossed and his demeanor much calmer than his younger brother’s.  But yet-in-still he had his wife’s hand in his lap, holding it.  Yet-in-still he was behaving as if that wife that he talked about as if she was some kind of a queen (although Cassius, if he had to rate her, would give her a six-at-best compared to the other one), was an appendage of his.  He wasn’t as calm, cool, and collected as he was making himself out to be, Cassius decided.  That ambush yesterday, and especially the part where his wife had been placed in mortal danger, had apparently spooked him.

“You heard my brother,” Sal said.  “Who’s Venetti?”

Cassius shook his head.  “I’ve never heard of him.”

Sal looked unconvinced.  But that was his problem as far as Cassius was concerned.  “You need to see your father, Salvatore,” he said.

“No,” Sal corrected him, “I need to find out who tried to kill my wife and sister-in-law, and while I’m at it, who tried to kill my brother and me.  That’s what I need to do.  That’s what I’m going to do!”

“But you don’t understand,” Cassius said, talking with his hands now.  “How can I get it through your thick skull?  Neeco needs you.  Your father, and I am telling you he is your biological father, needs you!”

But those words did something to Tommy, and he exploded.  “Where was his ass when Sal needed him?!” he yelled.

Everybody, even Cassius, were shocked by the outburst.  They looked at Tommy.

“Answer that,” Tommy continued.  “Where were you motherfuckers when your other son was treating Sal like his punching bag?  You tell me that!  Then maybe we’d entertain that shit you’re talking about now.  But right now, you’ve got questions to answer.”

Sal could not have said it better.  Grace and Gemma were proud of Tommy too.  He was not an explosive man.  He preferred to handle his outrage undercover.  But not this time.

Cassius realized he was cornered.  If a man like Tommy was now as animated as Sal, he knew his approach wasn’t working at all.   And he had to answer their questions.

“He couldn’t help Salvatore,” he said.

Sal and Tommy stared at him.  “Why?” Tommy asked.

“He wasn’t in any position to help anybody.”

“Why?” Sal asked.

Cassius hesitated, and then answered them.  “He was in prison.  He went in before you were born.  He got out five days ago.”

Sal, and everybody else in the room, was stunned.  “Motherfuck,” Sal said.  “What the fuck did he do?”

Again, Cassius hesitated.  Then he exhaled.  “Neeco was a very young man.  Younger than your mother.  He was my youngest child.  After Jacqueline left him, he tried to kill himself.  When that failed, he . . .”

Sal’s heart was pounding.  “He what?”

“When that failed,” Cassius said, “he decided he had to take his rage out on somebody.  He walked into a schoolhouse, and opened fire.”

An audible gasp was heard, as they all were horrified to hear the news.  “Oh, no!” Grace said.  “God no!  Those poor children!  How many died?” she asked.

“Thirty-four that day,” Cassius responded.  “It was the worse mass shooting this town had seen in half a century.”

Tommy looked at Sal, who looked absolutely distraught.  He was worried about him.  Because he knew Sal.  He knew Sal would grieve for the children.  His heart would bleed for those children.  But he also knew Sal would wonder about the man, his father, and how in the world could he live with something that gruesome hanging over his head.  Sal was wired odd that way.  In certain circumstances, he could show compassion for the victim and the perp.  Or victims, Tommy thought sadly, in this case.

Sal leaned back and ran his hands across his face, as if he could hide from such rotten luck.  Not only was the man he thought was his father a monster, but the man who actually might be his father could top that!  He wasn’t getting any breaks.

Gemma saw his anguish, too, and locked her small arm around his massive arm.  The ball was in Sal’s court, and everybody was looking at him.

Sal was suddenly soft-spoken.  “And you expect me to help a monster like that?” he asked.

“He’s your father,” Cassius said.

Sal batted his eyes.  The idea of it, that he would share blood with a man like that, hurt him to his heart.  But it still didn’t make sense!  “Why wasn’t this known?  My men ran background on him.  Tommy’s men ran background on him.  Our Uncle Mick’s men ran background on his ass and nothing like that turned up!”

“He was allowed to change his name at trial,” Cassius said.

Sal frowned.  “What?”

“In the village where it happened, he brought shame on what they considered to be a good name.  My name.  I requested, and the court approved my request, that his name be forever changed.  After the approval, and before his trial, he was no longer a Gabrini.  He became Neville Brutus.  A traitor to the Gabrini name.  But it is I who gave him his name back, the name of Neeco, when he got out of prison.  He served his time.  He deserves to be back in the family.”

“After shooting up a school?”  Grace asked.  “He doesn’t deserve shit in my book!”

“Mine either,” Sal agreed.

But then, Cassius added a twist.  He added it because he saw where that backstory, a story he would have preferred not sharing at all, was going to turn him even further away from helping Neeco.  “Venetti wants your father dead,” he said to Sal.

Everybody looked at Cassius.  Grace frowned.  “You said you didn’t know Venetti,” she said.

“I know him.  And yes, I did say that.  But I know him.  He’s dangerous, and he wants my boy, my only surviving child, dead.”

Sal was floored once again.  The main reason they were in Rome at all wasn’t to meet their grandfather, but to track down Venetti.  Now he was telling him that he was the one behind his father’s problems too?  Sal and Tommy both knew they had to go see this man now, if only to get more intel on Venetti.  But Cassius, they both concluded, given his lie about not knowing Venetti at first; given his concealment of that weapon, was not a reliable source.

Sal touched Gemma’s arm for support, as this had all rocked his world.  But, as usual when he felt as if his back was against the wall, he turned to Tommy.

Tommy’s heart dropped when he saw that lost, innocent look on Sal’s handsome face.  He didn’t know what to say.  The news was as shocking to him as it was to Sal.  But he knew he had to say something.  “Sometimes, when we have a situation,” Tommy said, “it’s better to face it head on, and then get it out of your life.  To get it out of your psyche for good.”

Sal knew that was the only answer too.  He nodded.  “We’ll go see him,” he said.

But Cassius, once again, had other ideas.  “He wants you, Salvatore, to come alone,” he said.

Tommy frowned.  This was getting to be on the outside of too much!  “Who the fuck cares what he wants?”

“I’m telling you he needs Salvatore to come alone,” Cassius insisted.

Sal sat there, and Tommy could tell he was leaning toward going alone.  “No way,” said Tommy.

“No, I got this, Tommy,” said Sal.  “You stay here with the ladies.  I’ll be okay.”

“No,” Tommy said again, firmly, and Grace and Gemma looked at him.  “You don’t know that man.  You don’t know what you’re walking into.”

“What are you talking about?” Cassius asked.  He was confused as hell.  “That’s his father.  It’s only right he goes alone.  He’s got to go alone!”

“He’s not going alone!” Tommy shot back.  “Those days of everybody pulling from Sal Gabrini’s flesh are over!  He’s not sacrificing himself for anybody else.  Not ever again!  He’s been sacrificing his entire life.  He’s been pulled apart his entire life.  Now you and his so-called father wants to pull him some more?  That’s not going to happen.  Those days are over!  I let it go on too long.  Now I’m putting my foot down.  If Sal goes to see this man, I go.  If I go, Grace and Gemma are going too.  We’re going as one unit.  Sal isn’t going anywhere alone.  Not anymore.  And that’s final.”

Sal stared at his brother.  He’d never felt such an overwhelming feeling of emotion coming from Tommy ever before.  Tommy had always stood up for him.  That wasn’t new.  But Tommy was not an emotional man who would declare just how far he was willing to go to stand up for Sal.  That was brand new.  Sal was touched.

So were Grace and Gemma.  And they agreed one hundred percent.  “Where Sal goes,” Gemma said, “we go.”

“Right,” agreed Grace.

Now it was Cassius’s time to be floored.

Until Marcel Renardo, Sal’s chief of security in Rome, rushed in and sealed the deal.  “We’ve got a read on Venetti,” he said, “and he’s preparing to attack.”

“Where?” Sal asked.

“He’s planning a strike in a small village an hour outside of Rome.  We don’t know where in that village, but that’s what’s suddenly coming all over the wires.”

“When?” asked Tommy.

“We’re hearing late tonight.”

“But who’s saying it?” Grace asked.  “Are these reliable sources?”

“Some are,” said Marcel, “and some aren’t.  But what makes it credible for us is that all of them are saying the same thing.  They know Venetti, and they heard he’s planning a hit tonight in Bianco, a village outside of Rome.”

“Bianco?” Sal asked.  “Never heard of it.”

“I know where it is,” said Cassius.  “It’s where Neeco lives.”

For some strange reason, Sal’s heart dropped.

And for both brothers it was settled.  They always preferred to kill two birds with one stone anyway.

“I’ll suit up,” Tommy said, heading upstairs.  “Sal, you arm the ladies.”

Sal gave Marcel orders to keep Cassius in his sight at all times, while he and the ladies went to do what Tommy suggested.

But Cassius was shocked by this turn of events.  He did not expect this!  But Sal, and Tommy too, to his shock, were like bulls in a china shop.  Sal was not going into that lion’s den alone, as he had planned would happen, because Tommy made that perfectly clear.  They were all going together.  Even their wives!

Who, Cassius asked nervously, was going to stop them now?